LINGUIST is pleased to announce the launch of an exciting new feature: Easy Abstracts! Easy Abs is a free abstract submission and review facility designed to help conference organizers and reviewers accept and process abstracts online. Just go to: http://www.linguistlist.org/confcustom, and begin your conference customization process today! With Easy Abstracts, submission and review will be as easy as 1-2-3!

As sociophonetic research progresses into the twenty-first century, it has begun to emerge as a distinct research perspective with its own set of research questions and directions. This inevitably brings with it its own unique set of challenges and issues, both practical and theoretical in nature. One the one hand, the field is undergoing rapid developments in the use of innovative statistical modelling and new acoustic techniques. On the other hand, researchers are increasingly looking to social and critical theory in their attempt to ground descriptive linguistic analysis in a sophisticated model of human interaction and culture.

This workshop, hosted by the Centre for Linguistic Research at the University of Sheffield, provides a space for postgraduates and early career researchers to explore and discuss these new and exciting areas of sociophonetics and the relevance of recent developments to their own research. It will feature:

- Plenary talks by Professor Gerry Docherty and Dr Jane Stuart-Smith

- Interactive session: 'Issues in Doing Sociophonetic Research'. This session will be a chance to gain advice on specific details, methodological issues and theoretical problems arising in your work from a sociophonetic audience.

- Roundtable discussion: 'The Future of Sociophonetics'. In this session we hope to draw together ideas emerging from the workshop and explore future themes and developments in the field, both from a technical and a theoretical point of view.